Simon Thomsett

Category: vultures | Date: Aug 24 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

Text and photographs by Laila Bahaa-el-din

Vultures are in trouble worldwide. In East Africa, the deliberate poisoning of carnivores is leading to the demise of vultures, while in southern Africa, vulture parts are used in witchcraft and in West Africa, loss of habitat and their use as bush meat are proving catastrophic. In South Asia, vulture populations plummeted by 95 percent in just a decade as a result of consuming the carcasses of cows that had been treated with the anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenac. In Europe, strict health regulations mean that all carcasses are disposed of, leaving no food for the vultures.

Bearded Vulture at Ol Donyo Laro, Kenya

Hooded Vulture in the Mara, Kenya

What to do? The general public doesn’t get up in arms about vultures. We can’t make emotional appeals based around cute and cuddly animals. The world needs to sit up and take notice of this crisis, if not for the vultures’ sakes, then for their own. Vultures have the unfortunate reputation of being dirty. The truth is that they not only clean up everybody else’s mess by consuming carcasses that would otherwise encourage diseases and pests such as rats, but they also are meticulous in washing themselves, finding water to bathe in daily when they can.

Black Vulture head in the Osa, Costa Rica

Black Vultures in the Osa, Costa Rica

So it is that vultures need an image make-over and serious awareness-raising. September 5, 2009 is International Vulture Awareness Day so wherever you are in the world, do a little something that might help spread the message that vultures need our help and fast. Here in Kenya, the Raptor Working Group, made of biologists, photographers and other interested individuals, has been organising a fair at the National Museum for the weekend of September 5-6th. I will be dressing up as a vulture as part of the awareness-raising entertainment and hope to show children what fun animals vultures are. There is going to be a national art competition, puppet show, story-telling and other activities that will hopefully lead to people looking at vultures in a new light. If you’re in Nairobi, come and join us there.

Cape Vulture at Kransberg, South Africa

Cleanup Crew - King Vulture and Black Vultures in the Osa, Costa Rica

We owe a big Thank You to the African Bird Club which has been so generous in its sponsorship of the upcoming event.

To see how you can take part, visit the International Vulture Awareness Day Web site: www.ivad09.org

Egyptian Vulture at Ololokwe, Kenya

Young King Vultures in the Osa, Costa Rica
King Vulture in the Osa, Costa Rica

Lappet-faced Vulture in the Mara, Kenya

Long-billed Vulture at Bandhavgarh, India

Ruppell’s Vulture in the Mara, Kenya

Smooching Lappets in the Mara, Kenya

Turkey Vulture in the Osa, Costa Rica

Turkey Vulture over the Pacific on Costa Rican coast

White-headed Vulture female in Etosha, Namibia

Tags: help vultures, International Vulture Awareness Day, wildlife poisoning

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Category: Conservancies, Raptor Expedition, vultures | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: Laila Bahaa-el-din

We were finally ready to go! The expedition launched from Nairobi on February 15 and there was no going back (we hoped). We started with a few more days in the Mara to see if we could catch any vultures. Again, we found no dead animals around, making it impossible to try to catch the vultures. We resorted to following hungry-looking lions hunting. We found three prides, all in hunting mode, but never witnessed a kill. We had given up hope, when on our final morning, on our way towards the exit of the Mara (keen to move on to the Serengeti), we spotted five lions. We just had to go and see.

So we got to the spot and watched as the lions licked at the remains of a topi. A few metres away, 10 jackals were fighting over their own small piece of the kill. And on the sidelines, 12 bloodied hyenas lay watching, looking distinctly peeved. Simon concluded that the hyenas must have made the kill and been pushed off by the lions who now lazed about looking fully fed. One thing was for sure, there was nothing left for vultures to come down to.

Lion with topi head

Jackals

Despite not having caught any vultures on this trip or the previous one a month ago, we learned some interesting things about their ecology and the whole Mara-Serengeti ecosystem. It was already known that the vultures were few in the Mara during this time of year while the wildebeests give birth to their calves in the Serengeti. And it’s not surprising! When the wildebeest migration is in the Mara, there are millions of animals and among them, old and sick ones which die and become food for the vultures. The lions, leopards and cheetahs also have a larger prey-base and kill much more often, leaving remains for the scavengers such as vultures. But during this quiet time of year, predators hunt much less frequently, and when they do, they are hungry and don’t leave anything spare. No wonder there were no vultures around!

We looked forward to getting to the Serengeti to see what the vulture situation was down there.

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Tags: jackals in the mara, lion eating a topi, mara conservancy

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Category: Raptor Expedition, vultures | Date: Feb 21 2009 | By: simonthomsett

Mutt the Bearded Vulture was moved to Ol Donyo Laro a few weeks ago. Mark Jenkins had built her a large pen near his house. This was an excellent first base camp for her but it was not intended to be a release location. She was to settle here until she found her bearings and became familiar with the area. Mark had his eye on a rocky high top almost at the summit of the Nguruman’s. Here was a ranger post with radio tower and nearby appearing out of thick forest and rocky cliffs lay a perfect spot. Bearded Vultures like these outcrops of rock to drop their bones. It is called an “ossuary.”

Laila and I flew up to meet Mark and his family. We then took Mutt up the rocky road to the high radio camp. Mutt had to be slightly sedated for the trip as it was long. We passed through some of the best quality forest I have ever seen and deep valleys with formidable cliffs. Truly these forests are a beautiful area of Kenya that deserves protection. When we arrived, I carried Mutt in my arms to a shed perched on one of the finest places in the country. It has a view that beats any lodge or grand home. It looks out down the ridge to northern Tanzania. She can see Ol Donyo Lengai, and even Ngorongoro, past the vast expanse of Lake Natron. In Tanzania, the Bearded vulture is still present, and these distant hills do still have nesting pairs. It is highly likely that Bearded Vultures still fly up and down the Nguruman’s hills and pass directly over her shed.

Simon and Mutt

We even searched the bare rocks in front of her shed to see if there were any smashed bone fragments from wild Bearded Vultures. Of all the possible locations within Kenya, this is certainly the best. It has not only the likelihood of other wild Bearded Vultures, but also it has the commitment of Ol Donyo Laro and 24-hour guard and eminence. The site is secure in this respect. The habitat, too, is likely to be much healthier. Poisoning seldom occurs within this region, and if she ventures into northern Tanzania, the habitat there is much more favourable than in much of central and northern Kenya.

View from Mutt’s shed

After taking a few pictures, we put her in her shed, where she stood on shaky legs from the effects of the sedative. I felt very happy in knowing that she has such a great home. Here she must stay and get focused on new home, prior to release. It is wise to let her stay some months so that she can imprint on her location and return when she is released.

Tags: mutt the bearded vulture, mutt's new home, ololokwe

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Category: Raptor Expedition, lammergeyer, vultures | Date: Jan 27 2009 | By: simonthomsett

In late 2001, I abseiled down a cliff into a gorge just north east of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The edge was covered in thick vegetation and was full of shards of frost that snowed down on my neck as I gingerly let go of my right hand and dropped down only some 50 feet into a deep cave. There was a good few hundred more feet to go, and this explained my caution and fear.

Inside the cave were two very young Bearded Vulture chicks. One was much smaller than the other and aged about three days. The other was about seven days old. I took the elder. In the wild, only one chick survives and so Cain and Abel rescue is the norm in raptor management. It augments the natural reproduction by 100 percent if done cautiously. I was at that time working for the Peregrine Fund, National Museums of Kenya, KWS and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organisation in a project to re-introduce Bearded Vultures (Lammergeyers to some) to Kenya.

I called her ‘Mutt’ after the Amharic explosive exclamation. “Mutt!” is a bit like “What!”

I cannot now remember if it was with her or with another that I was thrown off a Kenya Airways plane in Addis. I had prepared the endless CITES forms, permits, health permits and clearances. Obviously the tiny chick is incapable of being taken down in the hold, as it needed 24-hour care, and its body temperature is entirely dependent on being held close to ones tummy for the duration of the flight. All this had been organized ahead. Yet one of the cabin crew noticed, moved swiftly up the aisle and came back straight away with two stewards and I was escorted outside. The chick had been traumatized enough for the last five hours and its life was hanging in the balance. I gave the stewards the papers to forward to the captain (I had already done it once). But I could see the Captain ignoring me as I sat on the tarmac. Finally I phoned my colleagues in EWCO. They immediately phoned the Foreign Office in Kenya. They phoned back to Kenya Airways, and the Captain was suddenly a different man. Onboard I was ushered and home we went, to be met at Nairobi by Paula Kahumbu’s car.

Mutt and five other Bearded Vultures were taken in this way. It was a good time. For the first time in two decades we had Bearded Vultures flying over Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya. Then we had a few problems, including one being deliberately killed. Mutt used to venture right into this hostile territory and I was advised to take her back into captivity. Two others were left wild as they did not enter that area.

Mutt the Bearded Vulture

I then put her in a huge shed at Game Ranching in Athi, and over the following five years tried to find her a mate within Kenya. I did find one pair and missed three opportunities to rescue Abel as I was unable to get official assistance in the field. This was the local requirement and easily resolved, but for bureaucracy. I began to regret having taken her back for she sat most of these years alone, but for a few where she lived with an Augur Buzzard and once a Rüppell’s Vulture. The captive breeding of Bearded Vultures is a simple thing, but without clear permission and encouragement it was not going anywhere. With the closure of my collection of raptors and house, Mutt remained the most important of all, and the one that held back our expedition plans and the final closure of my house.

I had released Duchess, a captive bred Crowned Eagle, at Ol Donyo Laro two years ago. The release went well and she is still alive and wild. The location is without doubt the best possible choice in Kenya for the release of Bearded Vultures, given the now enormous human population around Hell’s Gate (the original release site) and the proliferation of very hazardous electrical pylons and geothermal generation in the immediate vicinity. Other locations that once held this rare raptor such as Mt. Kenya, Mt. Elgon, Cheranganis, the Ndutus, Mt. Kulal and Sololo are either heavily influenced by humans, regularly poisoned or simply logistically impossible to release.

Mark Jenkins at Ol Donyo Laro stepped in to help. He has taken on the task of managing the wildlife and habitat of the area and has a personal interest in assisting one of Kenya’s most endangered animals. He phoned on Wednesday, January 20th to ask if we could be ready to move her the next day. On the day, Laila and I gathered up Mutt and drove her into town and got on a plane to Ol Donyo Laro. Mark had built a fine pen for her. She will remain in this new pen for a while, adapting her internal map of the area and getting used to the local scene. She will then be moved to the very highest peak overlooking known Bearded Vulture habitat in Kenya and across into Tanzania. From there we hope to release her, preferably with a PTT (satellite transmitter tag) or one of the new cellular phone GPS transmitters. I costs a small fortune, but possibly no other single animal is as valuable as she. With some luck, she will make her home here in one of the wildest and best quality locations in our region. It will be the end of a long story, and perhaps the beginning of a new and more vigorous campaign to re-instate Bearded Vultures in Kenya.

Mutt on her way to the airport

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Tags: lammergeyers, mutt the bearded vulture, vulture finds new home

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